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Firefox constantly fails to start, requires hard reinstall

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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I've been having this problem where Firefox just fails to start. I click the desktop icon and nothing happens. No errors, no messages, no window flashes, just nothing. The process does *not* show in the task manager. There are no extensions or themes installed.

It does run in Windows safe mode. Firefox's own safe mode makes no difference. The only (very temporary) solution I've found is to uninstall Firefox, delete the program folder by hand and reinstall Firefox. But that only tends to work for a day or so.

I've run malware and virus scans on the computer, progressively closed running processes, installed the beta version of Firefox. Nothing works.

I've been having this problem where Firefox just fails to start. I click the desktop icon and nothing happens. No errors, no messages, no window flashes, just nothing. The process does *not* show in the task manager. There are no extensions or themes installed. It does run in Windows safe mode. Firefox's own safe mode makes no difference. The only (very temporary) solution I've found is to uninstall Firefox, delete the program folder by hand and reinstall Firefox. But that only tends to work for a day or so. I've run malware and virus scans on the computer, progressively closed running processes, installed the beta version of Firefox. Nothing works.

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Some problems occur when your Internet security program was set to trust the previous version of Firefox, but no longer recognizes your updated version as trusted. Now how to fix the problem: To allow Firefox to connect to the Internet again;

  • Make sure your Internet security software is up-to-date (i.e. you are running the latest version).
  • Remove Firefox from your program's list of trusted or recognized programs. For detailed instructions, see

Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet. {web link}